Look What's New From Our Friends At StickTogether! It's The Virtual Stickerboard Calendar!

 

Our friends at StickTogether are kicking off February with a big announcement! 

Every month, they will be creating a wonderful calendar that shows special events throughout the month. And the BEST part...they have created a monthly Virtual StickTogether Sticker Board Gallery to go along with these special events and celebrations!  

You will find the February Virtual Stickerboard Calendar here.

You will find out more about Virtual Stickerboards and how to use them with your students here.

Once you click on Create a Virtual Stickerboard, 

you will find the February 2023 Gallery.  

This gallery has all of the virtual sticker posters that correspond with the days on the new StickTogether Virtual StickTogether Calendar. 

Check them out! 

The virtual sticker boards are FREE for everyone to use.  

We can't wait to start using the StickTogether calendar with our students too.  They will LOVE these. 

Celebrating World Read Aloud Day By Sharing The Importance of Reading Aloud With Your Child In This Special Infographic From Our Friends At Capstone!

 

Today is World Read Aloud Day and a wonderful time to celebrate the importance of reading aloud. 

Our friends at Capstone have created a special infographic that shares how research shows that reading aloud to children gives them a head start on language and literacy skills, as well as provides support in the relationship between parent and child. 

This is great information to share with all teachers, families and students as we celebrate World Read Aloud not only today, but reading aloud all throughout the year. 

You can find this infographic here, 

along with several others that share the importance of reading, learning and so much more here on the Capstone site. 

Check Out The 2 NEW Virtual Stickerboards To Share & Create With Your Students To Celebrate Groundhog Day On February 2!

I love seeing all of the virtual stickerboards our friends at StickTogether create for special events throughout the year. 

With Groundhog Day coming up on February 2, there are two new designs that are perfect for our Groundhog Day celebrations. 

You will find them here on StickTogether's amazing new website.

Also, if virtual stickerboards are new to you, check out my blog post about how they work.  

We always have so much fun creating and collaborating on the virtual stickerboards. And one of the best parts...they are FREE for everyone. 

A NEW Novel Effect Soundscape and Activity Pack for Grumpy Groundhog As We Celebrate Groundhog Day!

 

There is a special new Novel Effect soundscape of Grumpy Groundhog for Groundhog Day on February 2, friends. 

You will find an amazing activity pack for this fun book on the Novel Effect here too. 

Check Out This Super Fun Online Marble Jar!

This is the time of year that classrooms, libraries and schools celebrate the 100th Day of School!  

We celebrated last Friday and it was so much fun to see all of the activities our teachers planned. 

After school, I was talking to my friend, Lindsay , and she was telling me about this fun site she used in the library to keep track of how many books the 3rd graders located during their research.   

                        

She used an online Marble Jar tool that is so cool! 

On the site, you put in what you want to start with and then can set a goal. 

I love how the jar can start out empty and...

...fill up with the cute hand drawn marbles. 

You will find the Marble Jar here. Watch how it works! 

25 Bookmarks To Color For Our Readers! You Will Find The Templates To Copy & Use Here, Friends.

Our kids love bookmarks.  They especially love the bookmarks they can color. 

As we get ready for special events in coming up like World Read Aloud Day and Valentine's Day, we have been created a lot of new ones for our readers at Van Meter. 

For this batch of 25 new bookmarks to color, I went to Canva. There are 100's of bookmarks and lots of templates for bookmarks to color. 

I found 25 bookmarks to color and added them to this link in Canva.

Feel free to use this template and bookmarks too. 

I made it even easier to print these off by downloading all of the bookmarks and...

....creating a Google Slides presentation.  I started by changing the size to 8 1/2 x 11, the same size as a standard piece of paper. 

I gave each bookmark its own slide and added four to each slide.  

This will make a really nice sized bookmark and it will give them lots of space to color.  They can even use their own creativity on the back side of the bookmark, which we will leave blank. 

I put a little drop shadow on each so they are easy to see and cut out. 

We will print these on white cardstock to make them a little heavier so they will last longer. 

Here is the Google Slide presentation that I created with all 25 bookmarks to color. You can make a copy and use it for your library or classroom too.  You can also view the Google Slides here. 

To print, either download as a PDF and print the pages of bookmarks you'd like. 

Or you can click on Print at the bottom of the dropdown under File too. 

In the front of the Google Slide presentation, I stated that all of the designs were templates within Canva. I changed a few of the original designs to create these special bookmarks for our readers to color. 

Happy Reading, friends. I hope your readers LOVE the bookmarks. 

Book Recommendation Notes and Post-It Notes For Students and Teachers To Use & Share In Our Library!

Our students love recommending books for our library.  And I love capturing these moments when...  

....even our youngest readers recommend books like more Tacky the Penguin books because he is funny. 

They make these recommendations on our Book Recommendation stickies. We have the sticky notes in a basket with some pencils so they can pick them up and add while in the library. 

Let me tell you more about these. 

                   

I love going to bookstores and libraries to find the little slips of paper with book recommendations on the shelves. 

It is one of the best things to see when I visit book stores and really does influence what I pick up and read. 

My favorite bookstore in our Denver neighborhood, The Book Bar, does an amazing job at posting book recommendations all over the store. You can see them in the picture hanging on the shelves just under the books.  

This year in our library, I wanted to give our readers the same experience in recommending books so...

...I created little notes that can be put on the shelves and onto the front covers of books in our library. 

This is a picture of a book shelf in our library and what the Book Recommendation Notes will look like. 

It will add a lot to the browsing experience and will encourage our readers to pick up even more books as they are looking. 

On the note, I added a place for title, author and You should read this book because...

I also made stars at the top that can be filled in. 

And of course, a place for the student or teachers name at... Book review by.

You can find the Canva template for the book recommendation notes here. 

After I made the note, I decided to turn it into Post-It Notes. 

I downloaded those designs from Canva and went to VistaPrint where I can make Custom Post-It Notes.

It's super easy to upload the Canva designs. You can preview the design before you place your order too. 

Another option is printing them on plain paper in black and white. I made a black and white template that you can find here in the Canva template link. 

When you print from your computer, just select to print 6 images per page. You can print on plain paper, cardstock or colored paper. 

Brianna and I are creating more designs that we will be adding to The Library Voice Shop. I will let you know when those are ready to go. 

This has been such a great way for students and teachers to recommend books in our library. Our students love seeing what others recommend to read too. 

A Groundhog Day Choice Board & A Fun STEAM Activity From Our Friends At 3DuxDesign!

                 

On February 2, we all watch to see if the Groundhog sees his shadow.  This is always so much fun for our kids to watch and learn more about. 

I put together a choice board for our students and teachers at Van Meter and wanted to share it with all of you too. 

In addition to the Pennsylvania site, Enter a State of Phil for the...

...Groundhog Day 2022 Livestream here, I included a few videos for kids, online activities, 

the PebbleGo article about Woodchucks, 

...and two Capstone Interactive eBooks about groundhogs and Groundhog Day.

You will find the link to the Let's Learn About Groundhog Day Choice Board here. You can make a copy and add links to your PebbleGo and Capstone interactive eBooks or change them out for another resource.

Remember, when sharing with your students, just click on File and Publish to the web. 

Then copy that link to share with students.  It will be just the interactive choice board that they see. 

To go along with our choice board and lots of learning and fun, our friends at 3DuxDesign created a super fun STEAM activity for Groundhog Day to do with your students too.  You will find it here.

Have fun celebrating Groundhog Day in lots of different ways. 

It's Time For Our February Choice Board! You Will Find TWO Versions This Month & the Links For Both Here, Friends.

                  

February is a week away and we are getting ready for a new month filled with learning, exploring, creating, collaboration and fun. 

There are many things happening in February so Our February Choice Board is filled with lots of places to connect our learners to these events and information.  

This month, I made two versions of the February Choice Board to share.  

Version #1 includes the Let's Learn About Presidents' Day Choice Boards created with PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next. 

You can share this link with your students for Version #1 and if you want to make changes you will find it here to edit too. 

If you don't have PebbleGo and don't want to make any changes, you can use Version #2 which includes links to the Groundhog Day Choice Board and National Geographic Kids to learn more about the Presidents.  

You can share this link with your students for Version #2 and if you want to make changes you will find it here to edit. 

Let me walk you through this months choice boards. 

In the first column, I included choice boards for Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day and Presidents' Day.  

You will find the Happy Valentine's Day Choice Board here. This is where you can make changes if you'd like. 

I included two choice boards for Presidents' Day on Version #1.  The first is for grades TK-3rd here and...

...this one is for grades 4-6th. 

On Version #2, I included the Groundhog Day Choice Board.  You will find everything you need for this one here. 

I also included a place for the Let's Take A Trip Around The World Buncee Choice Board, 

which you can find here too. 

And just as a reminder, remember to share it with your students by Publishing it to the web and sharing that link.  It will just show the slide when you share it that way. 

Please let me know if you have any questions or need help.  I am always happy to share and help you in any way. 

Have fun getting ready for February, friends.